Why MYSTERIES? Because that is the genre I read. Why PARADISE? Because that is where I live.
Among other things, this blog, the result of a 2008 New Year's resolution, will act as a record of books that I've read, and random thoughts.

Berglind hurried to her son and pulled him forcefully from the
window. She held him close and tried at the same time to wipe the
windowpane. But the haze couldn't be wiped away. It was on the outside
of the glass.Pesi looked up at her. 'Magga's outside.
She can't get in. She wants to look after me.' He pointed at the window
and frowned. 'She's a little bit angry.' A
young man with Down's Syndrome has been convicted of burning down his
care home and killing five people, but a fellow inmate at his secure
psychiatric unit has hired Thora to prove Jakob is innocent. If he
didn't do it, who did? And how is the multiple murder connected to the
death of Magga, killed in a hit and run on her way to babysit?

My Take

Despite the best intentions this is the first title that I have read by Yrsa Sigurðardóttir. The storyline is intriguing: a very nasty inmate of a psychiatric prison wants to challenge the sentence which found a fellow inmate guilty of arson and the murder of four other residents of the care home in which he lives.

Jakob has Downs Syndrome and much of the evidence he gave at his trial made little sense. The jury took into account the fact that he did not want to be in the care home at all, and that he was at time capable of great violence. But the more Thora investigates the more she becomes convinced that he would not have the ability to set a fire.

The only other survivor of the fire has "locked-in" syndrome but she obviously has information she thinks is important. The problem is making sense of what she communicates.

A very good read, one that will send me back looking for earlier titles in the series.